Promotion

Hi all,

My apologies for lack of movement on this blog. I have recently been promoted to Executive sous chef in my hotel and have found my role extended to other areas of the hotel and priorities have kept me away from blogging and focusing more on my new role. It is a fresh challenge for me and i am relishing the tasks that lie ahead. I am also thrilled that Spring vegetables have arrived over the past few weeks, winter is too long!

Here are 3 dishes that i have done over the past few weeks. Leading up to a busy bank holiday weekend in the hotel so will keep my camera with me and snap what i can, when i can

Cheers,

Craig

Noisettes of lamb

Provencale cherry tomatoes, saffron cous cous with sumac, smoked yoghurt

Slow poached Devonshire cod

mustard and Serrano ham crust, calamari, balsamic

Foie gras pave

apple poached beetroot, Pinot noir gelee, milk jam

Recent dishes

My apologies for lack of regular posting recently. Due to a number of projects taking up my time at work and out at the moment i will post when i can. Here is a consolidation of some dishes wev'e done recently.

Tenderloin of beef

beef and goose liver spring roll, vegetable galette, caramelised parsnips, sauce Bordelaise

Pan seared sea bream

ricotta gnocchi, citrus and chickpea shoot salad, Jerusalem artichoke, hibiscus foam

Amuse bouche

Razor clam ceviche

Poached lemon sole roularde

steamed mussels, bok choy, morels, sweetcorn veloute

Sous vide Hyden Farm duck breast

confit leg, fresh orange, carrot and spinach, medjool date sauce

Pomme souffle

Pomme souffle takes me back to a time working at Claridges on the banqueting section. We used to fill lilly fold napkins to the brim and serve for 200 people. Not one of my favourite jobs as you could be there for hours sorting through the potatoes that will rise sufficiently and the ones that will not. I was taught to slice them to a certain thickness to know by feel rather than measurement. The potatoes had to be the natural potato shape where the line inside the potato which is a few millimetres inside the border would allow the middle of the potato to souffle up. We did small batches as placing them in water would rinse off the starch. We had a big oval skillet with vegetable oil and had to bring it to approximately 150C - 160C. Once we had dropped them into the oil we had to vigourously swirl the oil around the pan so the oil would blister the potato and suddenly pop up. Once the potato had filled wiith air in the middle, we would take them out and rest on a tray with parchement paper. During service on the main course pick we would drop them into a hot frier and drain on paper towels and seasons and serve.

Recently i wanted to revisit this on one of the tasting menus. What i wanted was a nice shape that looked appealing. Cutting the potatoes in a square or a rectangle just didnt work. My thinking cap went on and i came up with this.

Slice the potato to about 1 mm thick, try two or three types of potato and different starch levels may alter the final result.

Blanch the potato slices in a frier at 155C for about 10seconds to release the starch and make the potato gluey. Press the two potato slices together and iron down to release any air inside. the cut to desired shape. Place into a shallow frier and flip some oil over the top with a ladel. The potato will pop up. The difference with this is that you need to leave it in the frier until golden and crisp and serve immediately.

This weeks tasting menu

Gently fried duck egg

seared foie gras, truffled brioche, truffle madeira jus

Butter poached halibut

potato wrapped tiger prawn, red and golden beet puree, balsamic essence

Sous vide chicken breast rolled in lemon and rosemary crumble(chix skin, panko, malden, rosemary, lemon zest), braised leg tortellini, tinkerbell pepper, warm potato espuma, Basque jus

Barkham blue cheese

roasted grape puree, onion bread

Caramel poached pineapple

Acacia honey jelly, coriander puree

Mugaritz kitchen fire

Early last Monday fire severely damaged the kitchens at Mugaritz, the world-famous restaurant in Spain's Basque Country. Luckily, no-one was hurt. For the management and staff of Mugaritz, the destruction of their workplace was a tragedy. But for three other young people, this was also a calamity.

When the dust settled on Mugaritz after last Monday's inflagration, Mattias from Sweden, Diego from Guatemala and Greg from the US found themselves without their most valued possessions. Their precious knife sets, not covered by the restaurant's insurance, had been incinerated.

Many of you will be familiar with John Sconzo of Docsconz - The Blog. John is a food blogger widely known across the world of hospitality and he has kindly volunteered to set up and administer a fund to recoup what these young chefs have lost. Can you please help with a personal pledge? Donations will be so welcome, no matter how large or small. Email John at docsconz[at]gmail[dot]com with your pledge and he will get back to you as soon as possible with details of exactly how you can contribute to the fund.

Febuary 9th du jour menu

Scallop and rosemary brochette

orange scented crosnes, rye crumble, Jerusalem artichoke veloute

Pressed leeks "a la ficelle" and king prawn

saffron marinated mussels, razor clam, mussel vinaigrette

Sous vide pork loin

cipollini and roscoff onion, french beans, chestnut tuille, sloe gin sauce, smoked bacon froth

Trio of English cheese

Winchester with its rind jelly, Cerney and beetroot, Tunworth with dried fruit and whiskey

Crab preparation 101

I promised my team quite a while ago that i would post the preparation of a crab. After finding the photos that we took, i am now posting what i promised. Thanks to Budi and Jason for their modelling hands, good work gents!

(raw)

Firstly the type of crab used here is the brown crab. It is a European crab and has a good amount of brown and white meat.

The humane way to cook the crab is to insert a skewer through the eyes and out through the tail. When the crab is dead, plunge into heavily salted boiling water. Cooking times vary according to the weight of the crab.

1 1/4 pound 15 mins

2 pound 20 mins

3 1/4 pound 25 mins

Anything larger cook for 30 mins

Once cooked, remove the crab from the water and allow to cool.

Once the crab is cool break off the claws, then remove the legs taking off the knuckle as well.

Break off the tail flap, then push the body section up and away from the head shell.

Pull the dead mans fingers off (the fat thumblike gills, you cant miss them).

(cooked)
Remove the brown meat from the headshell nto a container over ice and keep this separate.
Remove the brown meat from the centre of the body and add to the other brown meat. Then cut in half and using the back of a small teaspoon remove all of the white meat into a container over ice. The body should be quite hollow and much lighter after this process.
Crack the claws and the shells of the legs with the back of a knife and remove the meat without taking too much shell with it.
Using a tray over ice and wearing a pair of gloves. Pick through the crab in small handfuls by pressing the crab onto the tray and feeling any stray pieces of shell and membrane. Removing these pieces and dipping fingers in cold water to make sure it is gone.

Keep the crab in the fridge and serve that same day for best results.

Enjoy!!